Martine's Stagette

I became close with my friend Martine in grade 12. We were chosen as 2 of only 3 seniors on the WJM Dance Team and bonded during summer practices before school started. Once September rolled around we did everything together... shopped, ate breadbowls at Tim Hortons, convinced grade 11 boys to drive our drunk asses to dances. Once we turned 19 the real fun began. We were BAR STARS! Hitting up The Ozone and staying up until the sun came up... oh, those were the days.

Later on Martine moved to Vancouver, and then with her boyfriend to Grande Prairie. I didn't see her very often, but our friendship survived. She's one of those friends I can randomly call after months, and we can jump right into a convo like we talked the day before. Even as she had children she didn't push me aside for her "mommy friends." We could have out, with her kids, and act like us, not like a mom and a single gal.

When I found out after many years, and two kids, Martine was getting married I was so happy for her. But first, we had the stagette!

Mistake #1 - I took the Greyhound. Never, ever do this. Unless you like watching crackheads make out, and sitting next to people with dreadlocks. If so, then go ahead.

But, after the bus ride from hell we arrived in Jasper, Alberta and the fun started.

We were staying at these log cabins about a half hour out of town (If you can call it a town, that is... More like Banff's older, yet less socially adept brother.)

We arrived to appy's champagne and games. I got to know Martine's friends from Alberta and Saskatchewan, and it was a great crew. Everyone got along and no one was snobby.

The champagne led to some hot tubbing, which lead to a drunken walk around the campsite, which led to smashed glasses (and some noise complaints, sorry!)

The next day we went ziplining. Unlike other ziplines, you don't just sit in a seat and go, the zip was on a sloped building atop a hill, and you'd get hooked up, then run and throw your ass over the edge of the roof. Scary, yet amazing! You'd fly like Superman until the end! It took a while for the crazy woodsman zipline guy to get us all organized, and we were starving by the time we hit up Earl's.

This is where I first tried Jeera Chicken Curry. For those who haven't, it's super yummy... and I don't want to know HOW many calories.

After our heartbeats stablized from the adrenaline and day drinking we headed to the hot springs to relax. It was nice, but there's only so much sitting in hot water with 50 people I don't know. The craziest thing was there were some Islamic people there, and the men were in bathing suits, and the women were fully covered head to toe in black fabric... IN the hot water! I don't know how that's relaxing.

That night we headed out for some dinner and clubbing. Let's just say that Jasper's party scene leaves a little to be desired. I expected it to be like Whistler, where the streets are bumpin' at night, but when we walked out of the restaurant it was dead as a graveyard. The club wasn't the best either, it reminded me of an old "valley club", a la "Club NV." There wasn't even ONE hot guy for me to make out with, and that had been my plan for the night. No fair! After that we attempted to sneak into the hot tub, but our plans were foiled by a plethora of bungee cords and bike locks.

The next day I endured another loooonnngggg-ass bus ride home. It was worth it though. I really hope to keep in touch with some of the girls I met to do this again. And I'm excited to see them at Martine's wedding!

Feeling Better On This Gloomy Tuesday ...

Morning glories!  I don't know what the weather's like where you are but it's rainy and gloomy here which gives me NO motivation to do the things I need to do.  Like work on my our closet because it looks like a shoe store exploded on the floor.  Or work on little guy's room since it looks like this ...

And he's going to be here in about 11 weeks (10 if we induce on the 17th which might be an option at this point, especially since he's measuring a week ahead) EEK!

And speaking of being here in 11 weeks, here's what my 28 week (almost 29) belly is looking like these days (please pardon my morning hair, I literally threw on clothes to take this picture, the hair and lack of makeup are straight from sleeping the night before) ...

Yep, I feel gigantic.  And I still have 10 weeks.  Hopefully it will all go straight out into the belly and less into my face, arms and hips!  Thankfully I DO feel much better (thank you for all your well wishes, they were felt!) and am just dealing with a little drainage grossness but the sneezing, coughing and sore throat have pretty much cleared.  HOORAY!

Due to me not feeling so hot and the Mister needing some time to relax and regroup (i.e. wanting to spend the whole weekend watching college football) after having a few weeks of telling his current employer he's leaving, interviewing and accepting another job and getting everything in order to go from one job to another (SUCH a blessing, thank you Lord!) we laid low all weekend.  Friday night we watched a movie and had dinner at home, Saturday we went to dinner with the Mister's aunt, uncle and cousin that were in town from Fort Smith, Arkansas, Sunday we did church, came home and spent several hours being completely useless in front of the television and grilled out some delicious burgers on the grill.  Yesterday we watched my little sister's club soccer team win the championship (way to go Ally belle!) and came home to watch more college football and the Bachelor Pad with pizza and beer (on his end, milk on mine) and called it a night.  And that was our weekend.  Low and slow.  Just the way I like it when I'm preggers.  I'm sure once the baby gets here and I feel like my normal self again I'll want to get out and go out more but for now, staying home suits me just fine.

I hope y'all had wonderful, relaxing LONG weekends as well and are excited about the four day week ahead!  Happy Tuesday ladies!!!

Jennifer Behr Autumn/Winter 2010 Head Pieces!!!!!

I can not contain my excitement! I love luxe meets rock; and Jennifer Behr has made my dream a reality. It's a plus that Mollie Gondi is the model for the look book (I love her style). I am sooo looking forward to getting a couple of pieces for this year. Maybe a birthday headband????!!!! I hope so.... Jennifer Behr if you need an admin to hire; I'm your girl. You can even pay me in headbands, lol.

image source: fashionising.com

Sick, Sick, Sick

So much so that I'm posting from my phone because I'm too lazy to go upstairs and wait for my computer to turn on. I don't know if this is a cold or allergies but I DO know that I'm pretty sure I won the contest for the most sneezes in an evening. Ever. And let me tell you sneezing when you're pregnant = try not to wet your pants at the same time as trying to ignore the feeling that you're going to give birth with each sneeze. Fun. So that's all to say I hope y'all have a great LONG weekend and hopefully I'll be back on my blogging a-game next week!!!

Babylove

On May 12, 2010, I met the new love of my life: my niece, Leah Elise. (Rhyme unintentional.)

She arrived ten days late, after 4 days of labour... and she looked like a tiny, wrinkled, Asian man. My sister had made me promise before the baby came that if he/she wasn't cute (they didn't find out the sex) I would tell her, because obviously she would be biased. Well, I told her. It was ok, she agreed.

Leah was born with a full head of dark hair and piercing blue eyes. She also had one blonde streak going across her hair, a funny coincidence with Nicole being a hairdresser and all.

I spent all my time with this little muffin... I'd stop by most days when I worked in Abbotsford to see her... and we had a multitude of baby showers. Do you know what a 3 foot high stack of pink baby clothes looks like? I do!

She also started to get cuter once her ten-days-overdue-sittinging-in-whatever-kinda-juices wrinkles started to wear off. For the life of us though we could not get her to look cute in a picture, until Nicole's friend Justine came along. Justine took Leah's newborn pics, which were great. Take a look:

As Leah gets older she gets even cuter. She even started to do tricks... when you'd lie her on her back and play with her, *BOOM* she would kick you right in the boobs!

She had always had a strong neck, and now at just over 3 months she can almost sit up alone. She LOVES the pink bunny my parents brought home from New York for her, and shows it... by drooling all over it and then rubbing it all over her face. She also lets out adorable squeals of laughter occasionally, but only when she feels like it.

Here are a few of her 3-month pictures to take a look at. If anyone is interested they were taken by Justine Russo of Russo Photography.

As of right now I just can't wait for her next milestones: sitting up on her own, walking, pooping on my sister (oh wait, she's already done that!) I just can't believe how much you can love one teeny little person.

Thoughtless Thursday and Yes - I AM Alive!

I know, I know.  Two days in the grand scheme of things isn't a long time BUT it's a long time for me to go without blogging!  And I kinda (not really) have an excuse.  Well Tuesday I'm not sure what happened to tell you the truth.  I'm pretty sure that was just straight laziness.  But yesterday I actually did have an excuse.  My mom and I started a Beth Moore Bible study on Wednesday mornings at 9:30 and yesterday was the first one.  There t'aint NO WAY I was going to be a-bloggin' before that, especially when I had to get up to shower (which, again, I don't even know why I do anymore since I proceeded to sweat all the way through Bible study) and then after that I had plans to meet my MOH and sweet little P and have lunch and hang out together.  THEN I ran home, cleaned (part of) our house and went to meet some girlfriends at the dollar theater to see Eclipse.  Yes I just said Eclipse.  And yes your count is correct, that would be my 4th time.  Can we just talk about how I was a LITTLE disturbed by all the random MEN in the theater?  And I don't mean guys dragged there with their girlfriends.  I mean grown men, BY THEMSELVES, going to see Eclipse.  Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?  Cause I sure do ...

Okay, but on to my actual legitimate excuse, which I think just became illegitimate considering I just told you how I spent my day running around being busy, but here it is.  I'm also "sick".  And by "sick" I mean my allergies are sucking something BIG TIME.  As in sore throat, sneezing, stuffy nose, just down right ANNOYING!  I know it's allergies because I don't have a fever and by all other measures feel just fine, until the symptoms decide to buddy up and become friends making my head a big groggy, stuffy mess.  Then I feel like I need to lay down and not get up until this baby gets here.  So, for now, I'm trying to do as my sweet Mister is so sweetly demanding suggests and drink lots of fluids (i.e. water which is NOT my favorite), rest and "rake 'er reasy Gus-Gus"!  And if you can name what movie that's from I will love you forever.  See, can you tell I don't feel well?  I'm not making much sense right now.  I DO have something fun to discuss for TT though ...

Now y'all know about my Soulmatey.  My online bestie that I've never actually met in real life but feel like I have known her forever.  We met through reading each other's blogs and starting email fests that might as well been real time conversations.  Then we decided "We both have gmail, why don't we chat?" which moved to "We both have cell phones, why don't we text?" which, on Tuesday turned to "We both have voices, why don't we USE them?"  That's right friends, my Soulmatey and I had our first phone date on Tuesday.  And don't worry that it ended up lasting over an hour.  I was a little nervous thinking "What if she doesn't like my voice?  What if I say something stupid that I can't "backspace" like I could in a text?  What if I'm BORING in real life!?!?"  Thinking all these things, you'd think talking on the phone to someone who's voice you've never heard or face you've never seen (in person that is, I've seen plenty of pictures) would be akward.  Truthfully?  Not. one. bit.  As well it shouldn't be, we've been texting/emailing and/or gchatting for ove 8 months now!  And HOPEFULLY we'll have some pictures to post of ourselves TOGETHER as my baby shower is coming up and if everything works out, we'll get to meet in person that weekend.  Now some of you (ahem, my Mister and every other person in my life) may think this is weird.  Or crazy.  Or dangerous (and let me just confirm that after hearing her voice on Tuesday, she is DEFINATELY not a dirty 40 year old man behind a cute blog exterior)  And truthfully, in most situations I would too.  It's not like this is something that happens on an ordinary basis.  But I say a friend is a friend is a friend.  Sometimes you just meet them under different circumstances.  And this is one circumstance I'm very VERY thankful for.  I love you Soulmatey!

One a note of complete randomness (keeping with the theme of TT of course) I thought you should look at the cuteness that I had to cuddle with last night ...

{All cuddled up with the pillows on the couch ...}

Now, last but certainly not least, just to bring you up to speed with what's been going on with us lately, THE MISTER GOT A NEW JOB!  I will post more about this tomorrow but all I can say is this is something that has been a long time coming as he's been working at a large accounting firm for some time now and by working I mean, TO THE BONE and has needed to find something else for his own sanity and a lot of the time, health.  Needless to say we are THRILLED and I couldn't be happier for him.  Congratulations sugar I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

That's it from me today (not that you didn't get more than an eyeful!), happy Thursday loverlies!!!

The Countdown Begins......

There is going to be a big change going on in my life this month. I will be purchasing my very first sewing machine and dress form and getting ready to FINALLY go back to school. My mother is also turning 50 this month; I can't believe it. It was only yesterday she was turning 40 and now she is going to be twice my age, lol. My mother got married at 23 and had me at 24 (kind of young, I know) but she said she would do it all again to have us. I already know what I'm getting her: an iPod. I will probably spend most of my time teaching her how to use it but its the thought that counts......Anywho, I need to start making my cards for my wedding consultant/planner and personal shopper business. I am racking up clients. It is cool, I love dressing people and pulling together themes so this is an awesome job. I have my first gig for a Feb 2011 wedding; so I will be so busy. Talk to you guys soon.